The category marks a step forward for the Academy’s voting habits.
What This Year’s Costume Nominations Say About the Oscars in 2021
Following the announcement of the Oscars nominees on Monday morning, it appears that the long-overdue overhaul of the arcane voting process that took place in 2017 is finally leading to significant, long-term change. While David Fincher’s Mank led with 10 nominations—unsurprising, given the Academy’s well-known predilection for anything celebrating the mythos and glamour of Old Hollywood—the acting categories saw a welcome increase in diversity. Meanwhile, the best-director gong saw two women nominated for the first time in Oscars history, with nods given to Chloé Zhao for Nomadland and Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman.
Further down the list of nominations, however, it appeared to be largely business as usual: One need only look to the best-costume-design category to see many of the same vein of movies nominated as any other year, at least on the surface level. More specifically, the costume nominations rewarded those working within the parameters of traditional period dress that prove catnip for Academy voters year in, year out—although, upon closer inspection, this year did offer an unexpectedly global purview.
It came as little surprise to see the costumes for Autumn de Wilde’s Emma score a nomination. They were designed by Alexandra Byrne, a master of the period-drama genre whose work on Shekhar Kapur’s gloriously extravagant Elizabeth films saw her pick up both a nomination for the 1998 original and a win for the sequel in 2007. Byrne’s delightfully playful take on Regency-era empire dresses and bonnets dovetailed perfectly with De Wilde’s offbeat aesthetic, with the director’s background in music photography bringing a fresh, colorful eye to the typically staid aesthetic of Jane Austen adaptations. (It helped too that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic lineup of coats and gowns.) Byrne would make for a very much deserving—if somewhat predictable—winner and is surely the one to beat once the ceremony rolls around on April 25.
Another shoo-in this year was the work of veteran costume designer Ann Roth for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. At 89, Roth—who won previously in 1998 for her work on regular collaborator Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient—ties the record for the oldest nominee in Oscars history. And from the film’s opening scene, which sees Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf, it was made clear the audience was in for a roller-coaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion—bonus points too for the impeccable Jazz Age tailoring on the film’s male stars, including Chadwick Boseman and Colman Domingo. If Emma is this year’s front-runner, then Ma Rainey is nipping closely at its heels.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Liam Hess
